


Divided We Fall

by matan4il



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: M/M, kinda takes into account a spoiler pic for week 9, post reunion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-16
Updated: 2018-02-16
Packaged: 2019-03-19 12:07:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13704144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/matan4il/pseuds/matan4il
Summary: Robron have an unexpected visitor at the scrapyard.





	Divided We Fall

**Author's Note:**

  * For [robron_til_the_end](https://archiveofourown.org/users/robron_til_the_end/gifts).



> Robron secret santa 2017 gift to Hannah (originally posted on Tumblr).
> 
> Unbeta'd, my apologies.

Joe Tate had come by the scrapyard on an afternoon when Robert was there to take Aaron out for lunch. It was shortly after the two of them got back together and everything still very much felt to them as if they were on an unofficial honeymoon. 

From his vantage point at the back of the office, Robert was suspiciously eyeing the latest owner of Home Farm and the Dingles' newest sworn enemy. No, it wasn't like Joe Tate had to have planned it on purpose, his arrival at the yard precisely on a day when the two of them were planning to have a date during their lunch break, but Robert felt it would be prudent to still entertain the notion. After all, he and Tate already had... a few run-ins, if it can be put that way, which made this coincidence seem less than accidental to him. Not to mention, he did think that he had picked up on someone who he thought might have been Graham earlier in the day. Casually walking by the Mill just in time to catch Robert and Aaron finalising their plans for the day and reluctantly saying goodbye, kissing repeatedly and lowly growling to each other how lunch break couldn't come soon enough. Whispering how much they hated to be parted for even this short period of time into their kisses. In hindsight, there was more than a good chance it was all the kissing that made it hard for Robert to be fully certain of the identity of their probable stalker.

Once Robert let the scenario sink in, that of Joe having come by intentionally on an afternoon when both of them were more than likely to be around, he wasn't feeling all that prudent after all. Especially not given their uninvited visitor's rudeness.

Aaron had just been in the process of finishing up on some paperwork (he had to do a lot more of that since Adam had left, always grumpily muttering about it under his breath. Which his husband secretly found to be adorable). Robert had been patiently waiting by the interior side of the door (if he was capable of being patient, it was mostly thanks to the fact that it gave him ample opportunity to ogle how good Aaron was looking these days. And to do so without his husband making a face at him, pretending not to be enjoying the attention). When seemingly out of nowhere, Joe stormed in. Not knocking on the door, without thinking permission was something he needed in any form to enter the premises, not looking left or right when he walked straight in, as if he owned the place. Strutting right up to Aaron's desk, seemingly too set on his goal to detect any additional presence in the room. Approaching it with a familiar air that Robert did not like one bit. He was behaving like he had been in this office before. Robert couldn't help the niggling doubt that overtook him... had Tate been there before? If it weren't for that question mark, Robert probably would have already given in to the part of himself that badly itched to lash out and put the guy back in his place.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Dingle," Joe announced, as if it was mandatory for his entrance to entail much pomposity. It was the tone of his voice, all boastful and arrogant. He clearly thought he was above everyone else, as well as above common decency. God, what a prick. Robert couldn't stand him.

Aaron raised his eyes from the desk and the paperwork laid out on it, appraising the man standing before him. Robert had to admit to himself that the man his husband was taking in made for quite an appearance in his elegant, posh and alarmingly flattering clothes, his hair all done up meticulously. Joe Tate obviously took pride in his looks and was willing to put in the time to cultivate the impression he would leave on an audience. The fucking moron.

"What d'ya want?" Aaron spat out.

In the quiet of the small scrapyard office, Robert couldn't miss the little huff of surprised dismay that Joe let out in response. He could also hear the undertone of amusement found there, which would have probably been unnoticeable for almost everyone else. Tate has met a challenge in Aaron and he was not displeased by it. Fucker.

"Now, now, there's no need to be like that." His fucking amused tone. "I heard a lot about this place and I was wondering if I could interest you in a business opportunity," Joe's confidence evidently took no hits and the smirk in his voice was genuinely disgusting.

"What business would I ever wanna have with you?" Damn. Aaron was being rude as fuck, which Robert probably should have found to be reassuring. But no one knew better than him how appealing Aaron's attitude could actually be. He remembered all too well how meeting a refusal this blatant, this unapologetic, made Robert himself want to sink his teeth right into destroying it. Made him want to sink his teeth right into the line of Aaron's neck. Make it curve. Take down all his walls and barriers. Robert's breath stopped. Aaron's rudeness worried him because no one was more aware than he was the effect that it could have over a man with a mentality such as his... a man like Tate obviously was. The similarities between himself and Joe became perfectly clear to Robert for the first time as a real sense of panic took over him. He couldn't keep quiet anymore.

"What do you think you're doing?" Robert took two steps forward, forcing Joe to turn around to him.

"Ah, Mr. Sugden. How surprising to find you here," Joe said with a delight so smug that it indicated the exact opposite. The whole thing planned, then. This interaction with Aaron when Robert would be there, sooner or later, to witness it. This was the time when he had to focus. This was the moment to make sure he won't fall into Tate's trap, whatever it was or was meant to achieve.

"I'm sure it is. How could you possibly know I'd be here?" Robert was aiming for his deliberate cynicism to play its tricks on Joe.

Tate's smirk widened. "How indeed." He turned his gaze back to Aaron. "You know, I've heard a lot about this business and how it came to be. I can definitely see the appeal."

Robert did his best not to let the anger and tension that he felt shake his voice. "Yeah, I knew it had great potential from the very beginning. Only in the right hands, of course."

"Oh?" Joe looked back at him, with a raised eyebrow. "Are you of the opinion that my investment in this place would not make for the right hands?"

Robert was too zoned in on Tate's features, studying his every reaction, to glance at Aaron. But then again, he didn't need to. It was clear to him exactly how much his husband must be hating this entire exchange, dying to stop it.

"I'm sure it wouldn’t be news to you if I told you about my time up at Home Farm. So yeah, based on my experience with your type of business? Definitely the wrong hands."

The sound Joe made was almost a laughter. "No, not news. And from what I've heard, Mr. Dingle wasn't as confident as you, it took quite a few efforts before he found the right hands for this place. If he has, that is. So wouldn't that be something, huh?" Tate flashed his smile back at Aaron. "If it turned out you misjudged me."

"Right," Aaron's voice was annoyed and impatient, "I don't know who'd you think you are, marching in here with business proposals after everything you've done to my family. But you're not welcome here and your money don't impress me. Now do one."

Tate's smile didn't falter for a second. "Mr. Dingle. What loyalty you inspire in your investors. I look forward to discovering how you've earned such following and what could convince you to entrust your business to my hands after all. As I'm sure eventually you will. I'll be seeing you." And right in front of Robert, the fucker had the audacity to let his eyes take one long, last scan of Aaron, top to toes and back up again. Then he nodded at Robert with unhidden satisfaction. Like he accomplished exactly what he set out to do. "Good day," he even threw in a tiny courtesy in Robert's direction. As if it truly was just another business meeting come to an end. The door closed behind him, infuriatingly calm. Robert was anything but.

"That... That knobhead!" He was too angry to find better, more suitable curse words.

"Calm down, Robert, he's gone. He can't do us any harm now." With Tate gone, Aaron didn't sound as upset as one might have expected him to be.

"You know he's up to something, right?" Robert was pacing the room, glaring at the door behind which Joe disappeared. "That weirdo butler of his was sniffing around this morning. They did this on purpose..."

"Did what? Joe Tate wanted to make us an offer and we didn't even hear him out."

Robert stopped before Aaron's desk. Before his husband. He leaned forward, placing his hands on the wooden barrier between them, spreading them as wide as they would go, attempting to emphasise his seriousness while downplaying how anxious he was. "You gotta trust me, Aaron. I'm telling ya, he's got some plan in his head and nothing here today made him think he couldn't succeed with it."

"He can think what he'd like. He won't get anything over on us."

Robert didn’t want to put it into words, but he had to. "He's going to try and seduce you. He did it with Debbie, you're next on his list. All of you Dingles are valid targets to him."

Aaron's weirded out expression, making it seem like this was crazy talk, wasn't putting Robert's mind at ease. He was sure that however his husband was reacting, Joe's less than subtle delivery of sexual innuendo meant those intentions were hardly something Aaron could have missed. "He doesn't actually fancy me. He's not even gay!"

"Yeah," Robert said, "neither was I. Still couldn't help wanting to sleep with you, could I?"

Aaron snorted. "That's right, you weren't gay. You were bi. I know I didn't get at first what that means," Robert remembered. That and how much Aaron tried and struggled to understand it. They had come so far, which only made what they had all the more precious. Too precious. "But I did know from the start you were genuinely interested. You weren't going after me just for the sake of some plan, or else I would have never had you in that garage."

It's meant to lighten the mood, that last part. But after all they've been through to get back to each other... Too precious to take the smallest risk with, too precious to lose again. "What if Joe's bisexual too, and genuinely after you? In a way he is interested, even if he's never been with another guy before. When a man like him commits himself to a scheme, he's truly committed. He's going to come after ya with all he's got and he's not gonna stop until he gets what he wants."

"And you know this for a fact, do ya?" Aaron's voice now sounded tired more than anything else.

"In a way..." Robert hesitated, but pressed on regardless, "I do. I mean... I used to be him, wasn't I?" Robert hated admitting it. The more upset and disgusted he was with Joe, the harder it was to own up to their many similarities. But he would do that and more if it kept Aaron safe from Joe's manipulations.

Aaron shook his head and something softened in his eyes. "You were _never_ him. D'ya hear me? Because you're the one that's gotta trust me on this one. I saw you from the first moment, Robert Sugden. I saw who you were and who you could be. And, yeah. You two have a lot in common. But you were always better than him." He placed his right hand softly on top of the left one Robert still had splayed out on Aaron's desk. "Even just a few seconds ago, you were thinking of protecting me from him, weren’t ya? Not only us, but me. You don't even realise how much better than him you are..."

The warmth that already started brewing in the pit of Robert's stomach as soon as his husband began speaking, it was now spilling all over and touching every internal part of him. Robert listened. And heard once more the love that Aaron felt for him, the love his husband had for him even back when he didn't have any for himself. Only the appearance of it. That served to remind him of what might be Tate's Achilles heel. And that it was love again that afternoon which stopped Aaron from intervening while Robert and Joe were exchanging words, despite his own discomfort, recognising that his husband needed the opportunity to assess their uninvited visitor. "Alright," Robert said with the certainty that his husband gets him. "But you will listen to me with this, right? Because maybe I wasn't quite him, but I still know how he thinks."

"Goes without saying," Aaron nodded at him. "Whatever he's planning, we're gonna figure it out together and he's gonna regret ever coming into this office today." 

Aaron's words, his faith in them, it made something settle inside Robert enough to allow him to address one more thing that he had to. Something that he couldn't have brought up with any other partner, because it would have left him too vulnerable. And if he wouldn't have, it would have then continued to consume him on the inside.

"That knobhead was flirting with you. Whatever we figure out and decide to do, I don't want him allowed to do that. I don't want you accepting that or flirting back. Not even pretend flirting."

"Agreed," Aaron didn't so much as flinch, not a tiny bit of resistance.

"You know that he was just trying to fuck with me through you, right?" Robert sounded to his own ears so much smaller than he thought he would.

"Actually..." Aaron started as he rose to his feet, bypassing his desk to wrap Robert up in his arms. Without a thought, his own hands returned the gesture and found their way to Aaron's waist. Entangled together. As they always should and would be. "Actually it was me he was trying to fuck with. Ya know, in the literal sense," Aaron said this with that brand of shrugged off cockiness he had from time to time that was so endearing. Probably because he thought that he was joking even as Robert reckoned that he was unwittingly stating nothing but truth. One that being them two, together, brought to the surface, making Robert feel that he'd done good after all. "You don't have to care or be upset by that. Because I'm never gonna want to fuck with him. Or with anyone else for that matter," Aaron added to the end of his sentence a gentle bite at the base of Robert's neck, to make his point, then proceeded to lick at the slightly reddened skin.

"Oh," Robert struggled to not come across quite as breathless as he felt, not yet. But it was futile and he couldn't help but give in to the impulse to nuzzle against the side of Aaron's face, "is it just me you want to fuck with, then? In the literal sense?"

"Just you," Aaron reached around to playfully smack Robert's bottom, "I promise. In every sense".


End file.
